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For a reason not usually considered, the Book of Mormon is unique among the standard works for the Church and, for that matter, any book that thus far has ever been written. This reason provides, perhaps, a major explanation for why prophets such as Ezra Taft Benson have emphasized the special need for its study by Church members and how and why its message was written specifically for our day. This reason is that the Book of Mormon is the record of a people who possessed the fulness of the Gospel (D&C 20:9; 27:5; 42:12) for over 1000 years. As such, it provides a very important model for members of the Church to follow, since we also exist in this same kind of religious setting.
I take the phrase “fulness of the Gospel” to mean:
1) Men with the authority and keys of the Melchizedek priesthood are in leadership.
2) Members are taught and understand the plan of salvation (see PREACH MY GOSPEL, 2004, pp. 55-56) as including:
–Knowledge of where we came from, why we are here, and where we will go after this life
–Knowing that a loving Heavenly Father instituted this plan to help us progress in this life, be happy, and live successfully, so that we can return to his presence and become like him
–The mission and atonement of Jesus Christ was central to the plan, overcoming physical death and providing a way for us to be cleansed and forgiven for our sins so that we can return to live with a holy God
–Forgiveness and cleansing are available through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by authoritative administrators, the receipt of the Holy Ghost, and “enduring to the end” faithfully.
3) Ordinances of salvation, including baptism, and bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost were administered, by proper authority.
Other standard works, while containing important truths, do not have this background of a people trying to live the gospel for over a millenium:
The Old Testament is mostly about a people who had rejected the fulness of the Gospel when offered it by Moses and were given, in its place, a preparatory and lesser law and structure, the Law of Moses. Only the Book of Genesis gives a brief glimpse of earlier times when the fulness of the gospel was present.
The New Testament, after the testimonies of the life and mission of the Savior, describes a kind of Kirtland Church (Reynolds, EARLY CHRISTIANS IN DISARRAY, pp 8-9), increasingly characterized by dissension and wickedness, which existed only briefly before disintegrating into full apostasy.
The Doctrine and Covenants contains revelations to modern prophets, largely in the first few years of the Restoration.
The Pearl of Great Price contains a few brief and added insights about the early times portrayed in the Old Testament.
On the other hand, the Book of Mormon gives rich detail about the efforts and struggles of individuals and groups to live the gospel as members of the ongoing Church of Jesus Christ, that we can and should relate to, as members of a church which has been administering the fulness of Gospel for over 180 years:
1) Wonderful examples of day-by-day faith, valiancy, and how these choices were made, by committed followers of the Lord, often in the face of trials and opposition (Lehi, Nephi, Abinadi, Helaman, Nephi II, Mormon, Moroni, etc., etc.).
2) The fruits of rebellion against the teachings of the Lord through his prophets and leaders, by persons who undoubtedly had been taught and/or been part of the gospel, even to the point that these persons became violent and murderous in their opposition (Laman and Lemuel, Zeezrom, Amalickiah, Zemnarihah, etc.), how as a member to deal with such opposition.
3) The process of returning to living faithfully (reactivation) on the part of members of the Church after engaging in such things as apostasy (Alma I), rebellion (Alma II), worldliness and materialism (Amulek), indifference and apathy (Enos), immorality and other serious sins (Corianton).
4) How baptized members may increase their spirituality to the point of knowing they have forgiveness and retaining a remission of their sins (the people of King Benjamin, in Mosiah 1:11; 2-5).
5) Ways to transmit the faith across generations, such as write a record of your spiritual experiences, teach from the scriptures, understand and learn from your family history, hold family councils and gatherings, give father’s blessings, be an example, bear testimony, give one-on-one counseling, give positive affirmation, be patient. (I have references for all of these)
6) Dealing with wayward children (Lehi; Alma I and Mosiah with their sons; Alma II with Corianton)
7) The covenant nature of the ordinances of salvation (Mosiah 8:8-10, 3 Ne 18:1-11).
8) Acquiring faith, hope, and charity as measures of a member’s spiritual progress (faith–Alma 32, Ether 12:6; hope–Ether 12:3, Alma 22:15-16, Moro 7:40-43, Moro 8:26; charity–Moro 7:44-48, 8:26)
9) How the Spirit is felt and experienced by a member (Alma 36, 32; 2 Ne 31, etc.)--how it can be driven away, how it can return.
10) The process and importance of true repentance, as experienced by members (Alma 34, 39, 42, etc.)
11) The need to sustain and support our leaders, to follow the prophet (many places).
12) Dealing with fighting in a war, as a member.
13) Being a missionary.
14) How the Church should function and be conducted.
15) Conducting the ordinances of salvation.
Etc.
Truly, among its many wonderful features, the Book of Mormon is a Member Manual, helping us since our baptisms 1) to progress in our personal spirituality and righteousness, 2) to bless and teach our families the Gospel, and 3) to support the growth of the Kingdom.
Wendy took her mother with her and left for most of this week for the cabin, for Girl’s Week. This is a fall get-together with a long history for Wendy, her mother and her sisters, and some aunts and cousins. This is going to be a little change of pace, as Wendy and I have not been apart much since we got married and especially while were served in NC. Wendy did a lot of preparations, so I would not suffer too much, such as loading the fridge with food. I am going to try to implement a daily schedule to exercise, work on Guy Lewis records index for an hour a day, continue to search for Lewis family records on Ancestry.com, blog and phone family, work some in the yard, and try to keep some kind of order in the house. There are grand-child soccer and football games and I have some Scout boards of review to help run on Tuesday night.
On Monday evening we did our monthly Skype visit with David, Rebecca and boys.
We saw soccer games played by Brianna, Joshua and Jeremy. The latter was a very interesting game. Matthew is the coach. A mistake was made between the Mapleton and Springville rec departments, which caused teams of Mapleton 5-6th graders to play against Springville 7-8th graders. They were playing Springville team this night whose players must have averaged being about a foot taller then them. In a prior meeting they lost to this team 12-0. Matthew had worked with them on defense in the meantime and they were able to bottle up the other team’s attack for the most part. On offense they got some scoring opportunities. We saw the last two goals which they scored on penalty kicks (6th graders tend to fall down when a boy a foot taller pushes on them when they are on a breakaway) and they won a great moral victory at 4-4. Lots of fun.
Joshua is grasping what the game is all about and played some sturdy defense.
We spent our now-again-usual long Thursday in the Provo temple. We did two endowment sessions, one on Wednesday afternoon at Provo and a second Friday mid-day at Jordan River. Earlier Friday we spent some time with Gert Foerster, our CPA, to finish our 2009 taxes (we had sent in estimated payments but he had arranged extensions until we could look at everything this summer).
Saturday, thankfully, SFCN did not broadcast the BYU-Florida State game, but I watched a lot of football including Utah’s blowout of New Mexico.
I taught the 15-16 year old’s Sunday School lesson for they last time as our replacement has now been called.
I came home from NC carrying lots of extra weight and severely out of condition. We were so busy, it was hard to schedule exercise (besides, where we lived was not a very good or safe place to walk). We were on the road a lot and eating a lot of fast food. When I stepped on the scales the morning after arriving home, I weighed 242 pounds.
I began to try to eat lighter and to avoid eating out as much as possible. We started to try to walk regularly for exercise. The first day, we walked 20 minutes, and I had to take a nap afterward to recover. Over the last three months, I have gradually been able to increase my endurance, and can now go for 60 minutes without being totally debilitated.
This morning, for the first time since we returned home, I did what was one of our favorite walks–walk northwest past the Jr. High and the cemetery to 200 E and 300 S, then south to the start of the River Bottoms Road and follow it to the turn-off road that climbs back out of the bottoms at 1400 East. I stopped in at Emilie’s for a drink of water and short visit, then returned home. The total route is about 5 miles. And I am feeling pretty good. I am now weighing in at about 227-228, which is what I weighed when I left for NC, so I am down about 15 pounds. I think that I would be healthier long-term if I got under 210, and that is my hope to achieve by the end of the year.
We have had Wendy’s mother, Annette Ridges, with us this weekend. We are giving Wendy’s sister Shannon a break. Annette is 92 years old. While she can still walk some and appears to have pretty good physical health, she is nearly blind, has very poor hearing, and considerable dementia. Once in a while her memory kicks in, but in general, there isn’t much communication anymore. When she senses she has an audience, she will sort of wake up and try to entertain people with funny statements and faces.
In regard to her attitude, her later years have been exemplary. She has not complained about her health or other problems.. She always sees the bright side and is happy and positive. She enjoys the attention of family members and others.
She was born Annette Newman Salt Lake City, 30 Apr 1918, to William Gold Newman, from Tennessee , and Elizabeth Johnson, whose family were Danish converts to the Church. She married Kenneth P. Borg, 8 Oct 1937, in the Salt Lake Temple. They had six children, a son Kenneth Jr. (b. 1939). then five daughters, Sue (b. 1941), Kathy (b. 1946), Wendy (1948), Bonnie (b.1951), and Shannon (b. 1954). All married and raised their families in Salt Lake. Ken Jr. was a dentist and all of the daughters home-makers. Ken Jr. served a mission in England and all six of the children were married in the temple.
Annette was an accomplished artist, and produced many fine oils, water colors, and sketches, particularly after her children were grown. Paintings include still-life and outdoor scenes from Utah and also Europe. One of her paintings is housed in the Jordan River Temple.
Sadly, after 33 years of marriage, Annette’s husband left his family. Annette helped to provide support by working as a floral designer and with a wedding reception center. On 4 May 1972 she married Melvin H. Ridges in the Salt Lake Temple. He was a widower and a successful insurance executive. He also had been blind since he was a young adult (his condition became evident and worsened while he was serving as a missionary), but in spite of his handicap, was a very capable and solid man. Annette and Melvin served as senior missionaries at the San Diego Visitors Center from 1979-1981. He passed away in January 1997.
We were very grateful for an invitation from Soderquists to join them for Heidi’s mission call opening last Wednesday evening. The anticipated mail arrived in South Weber early in the afternoon. Alison let us know that the Official Opening (and to the best of our knowledge, there was no unofficial prior opening) would take place at 6:30 pm on the BYU campus, on a little grassy hill (mound?) that Heidi has a particular affection for, just outside the east entrance to the Talmage Building.
Heidi was on the little hill with some friends, then Britain showed up, and after a period of time here came Alison, Quin, and all of the younger Soderquists. Britain went into the Talmage Building to get Andrew (he is working part-time in a computer lab just inside that building), and then, with the appropriate amount of drama, Heidi slowly opened the envelope, and read “Spain Bar
cellona.” There was a considerable level of whooping, hollering, and hugging. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Aaron and Chris made good use of the hill for rolling and wrestling, and Daniel found a lightpost to do pushups from.
We all finished off the evening in celebration by going to BYU Dairy’s Creamery on 9th East for ice cream. I am very proud of Heidi and wish her well on her mission.
We
had Hilary, Andrew, Olivia and Jack down for dinner Sunday evening. We helped Olivia celebrate her 8th birthday.
Uncle Rodney (Davenport) passed away last Sunday. Our experiences while attending the viewing Thursday night and at the viewing and funeral Friday were meaningful and special. One of the first things that caught our attention as we entered Wing Mortuary Thursday evening was his clarinet and saxophone sitting in their open cases. I remembered these instruments well. He left them with us in 1942 when he went to war. Having a fascination with all things musical, I had the overwhelming desire to get them out and learn to play them. I couldn’t understand why my mother wouldn’t allow this. They sat for four years in their cases in a storage area under our living room couch, without my touching them, from my fifth to ninth year, until Rodney was released from active duty and retrieved them in 1946. I never did realize my dream of being a saxophone player. Rodney was an outstanding self-taught musician, and played these instruments in the 1930-1940s “big-band” tradition of Benny Goodman or Glen Miller. According to things said at his funeral, he started a band called “The Columbians” when just out of high school which played for dances and gave performances for a number of years throughout the mid-Columbia area of Oregon and Washington. One young musician that he tutored was Doc Severinson, who later was Johnny Carson’s musical director. The family said that Severinson later invited him to join him in his band in Los Angeles, but Uncle Rodney turned him down, feeling that the life-style of this kind of professional musician was unsuitable for a family man.
The entire tenor of the funeral and our contact with family members was happy, positive, and full of love and gratitude. It was really an uplifting and spiritual experience. I came away warmed and appreciative for this part of my family, where the gospel has decidedly enriched their lives and relationships. One of the very impressive things was the total meshing of this blended family into one family, particularly as described by Kathleen Koltermann, LaRee’s oldest daughter by her first husband. Rodney and LaRee were “Dad” and “Mom” to all, and all seven children were fully brothers and sisters.
I received new insights into Rodney’s strengths, in his lovingness, steadiness and faith, but even more in seeing how that LaRee had endured the initial challenge of becoming the mother to this bunch of untamed little boys who had been without discipline and direction for at least a year after Dot’s death, to create a united and stable family in the gospel, full of good citizens and goal-oriented young persons. Dot had died unexpectedly (“She went to the hospital for an operation and never came home” said Larry in his talk) about three months before I left on my mission in 1957. I recall visiting their home in The Dalles sometime after her death and before I left for the Mission Home in October. The chaos and sense of loss in that household was absolutely heart-wrenching. I sensed that a wonderful rescue had occurred for that family, having a great deal to do with LaRee becoming a part of the family and their subsequent move to Utah. At the viewing and funeral I saw evidence that nearly all of the 42 grandchildren and 92 great-grandchildren were active and strong in the Church. What a miracle.
For me, the highlight was Larry’s closing talk at the funeral. He used two or three of his own experiences growing up to give honor to his father and also to teach and testify of Gospel truths in a very powerful way, including:
1) After the funeral, the family went home and there was a contentious argument in the living room between a Davenport relative and George and Dolly Cox, Dot’s parents, the Davenport relative trying to express his faith in God and the Cox’s denying the justice and existence of God, if he would allow such a thing to occur as the death of their daughter in these circumstances. At 10 years of age, Larry found this argument confusing and dismaying. He retreated out the house and climbed the hill behind the house to a place where he could sit among some trees and view his home in the distance. There he prayed, and received a powerful and comforting spiritual witness that his mother was alive and that she was happy. He then repeated this testimony and that Rodney was alive and with his loved ones.
2) Having now grown up active in the Church in Lehi, Larry was preparing to serve a mission and in fact had received a mission call to Sweden. He believed in God, in the Book of Mormon, and the Church, but yet had questions about whether this Church was the one true church. He had about decided that he wouldn’t go on the mission having these reservations, and about two weeks before he was supposed to leave he shared this problem with his dad. Rodney wisely turned him to the Book of Mormon, Moroni 10:3-5. As they read these verses together, Rodney pointed to the words “with real intent” as being the most significant phrase in this passage, and asked him what this meant. After Larry gave a less than adequate explanation, his dad interpreted this phrase to mean that the person who was praying for knowledge must fully have the intention to act upon the understanding that the Lord would give him. Rodney suggested that Larry go back to his prayers with this understanding. Larry followed his advice and shortly was fully prepared to go on his mission, able to testify absolutely of the truthfulness of the Church. He concluded by testifying to the need for all of us go beyond believing (even the devils do that) but to act upon our beliefs and knowledge and that this will make all of the difference.
We saw: Alison, my sister Dorothy, along with Jeree and Kristine, who travel down form Ogden together, Allen Hall and his sister Phyllis along with her daughter (children of Dorothy Davenport Hall), Ed Davenport, his wife and also his sister Alice (Franklin’s children), Myron Davenport and his wife Pearl and three of their children, Ron, LouAnn, and Becky. We did not know until we saw Rodney’s obituary that his oldest son Rodney Jr. had recently died. We visited with his wife Venetta and met several of her children (they had 11) and grand-children. We had a good opportunity to become re-acquainted at the Thursday night viewing (it was less crowded and rushed) with Rodney’s children Larry, Jim, Diane, Randy, and stepdaughters Kathleen and Donna and some of their spouses.
After three weeks teaching 15-16 year olds in Sunday School, we are being released. We were just about to leave for Taylorsville Sunday morning where we were to talk about our mission to the Taylorsville Gardens 1st ward, when we got a call from the Executive Secretary, Brother Cook, in our Spanish Fork ward. He said that Bishop Voorhees would like to see us right now. As we met with him, he called Wendy to be a 1st Counselor (education) in our ward Relief Society Presidency. He had two new assignments for me: 1) to be the building scheduler and overseer for our building for 2011 (when he will be agent bishop), and 2) to do some work with scouting advancement for the young men for the ward. We went to the very start of our Sacrament Meeting, long enough to stand and be sustained, and then left for Taylorsville.
It was sweet to be back in the Taylorsville Gardens 1st ward again, and people seemed to really appreciate our coming. We got there in time to attend Loyal Flynn’s Gospel Doctrine class. This caused me to remember the inspiration involved in extending this call about 10 years ago, and to marvel that he is still in that calling, still teaching the scriptures with intensity, in the very same room.
We gave about the same talks we gave in our Spanish Fork ward, with Wendy listing the things she loved and learned about the mission experience–the young elders, their faith, their commitment and sacrifices, and love of service. She was very kind to say how grateful she was to have been invited to be a part of the Lewis family and how much she admires and loves us and especially her “Elder Honey,” which made people giggle.
I introduced my talk by recalling attending zone conference in the NC Kinston Stake House, feeling at home there and then realizing that it was built with the same architectural plan as the TG 1st building. I reminded them that this wardhouse was built on a different construction plan, one in which the ward members did much of the construction and that they labored for a considerable time in all of their spare hours to finish the building. Janet Poore had said that it was such a joy to see this building completed, because they knew that they now had a lovely and convenient facility to teach their children the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We moved into the neighborhood when the building was about 5 years old, and it was also the place for our children to be nourished in the Gospel for all of their growing-up years. As such, it was, and still remains, a Holy place for our family.
The Vietnamese group is still a part of the ward with several of the old-timers, but also with some new faces, and 40 or 50 attending. Thao Tran was still translating the sacrament meeting talks to people with head-phones and still teaching a Vietnamese language Sunday School class. I was happy to see Richard Mascarenas as a counselor to Bishop Powell, apparently now fully embracing Gospel principles and the other counselor, Mark Gull, who served so well with the Young Men when I was Bishop.
We try to do an endowment session weekly. Last Tuesday we went to a session at 6 pm in the Provo temple. We had not been sitting long in the Chapel waiting for the session to start, when Uncle Blaine came in, looking sharp in his white ordinance workers’ suit. We learned that currently he is serving as an Endowment Room Coordinator for his shift. He came over to us and said, “I have an important assignment for you today” and asked us to serve as witness couple, which we love to do, of course. (We love it when we know high people in high places.)
A few moments before, Wendy had passed by Aunt Linda working in the New Name area. I sure had a good feeling seeing those two working in the temple.
We started our new ordinance worker schedule on Thursday, working both Shift 1 and Shift 2, as we did before our missions. We start at 6:20 am and get done at 4 pm. This day was long but I had a good feeling to be back. We were amazed to see so many friends still there who we had worked with almost two years ago.
A few weeks ago, I sent a letter to each of the missionaries from our Wolf Hollow 2nd ward. (They are all young men I worked with when I was ward YM President in 2007-2008.) I had a sweet letter back from Elder Ryan Jackson, who is serving in the Washington Seattle Mission. He said in part:
“I want to thank you for all you did when you were an adviser to the Priests Quorum, and especially during the Youth Conference we had in Manti. I don’t know exactly what you did, but you really helped me to enjoy that Youth Conference. That was one of the first events that really got me wanting to serve a mission. Thank you so much!
“My mission has been the greatest experience of my life and it has also given me some of my hardest challenges, but also have all helped me to grow so much... I just love being out here so much.”
Picture: Ryan at the Snow College Youth Conference July 2008
With the new hearing devices, I am starting to be able to hear sacrament meeting talks again. Today’s were just exceptional. Kristen Johnson, a fairly young mother in our ward, gave a very intense talk on the high priority that mothers should give to being at home and teaching and nurturing their children. I had the thought that this was Valerie transfigured, standing before us emoting and presenting the message of the prophets. It literally brought tears in my eyes.
Then Gordon Mills gave an equally powerful message about fathers and father’s blessings (he is a former stake and mission president, who by the way is married to Joan Toronto, a childhood acquaintance of JoAnn’s). He spoke of the power and influence for good deriving from the giving of father’s blessings by a righteous priesthood holder and family patriarch. He recommended giving blessings at every important “passage” time for children. These might perhaps include before going to school each fall, going away to college, leaving for a mission, getting married, moving away, starting a new job, and other special occasions.
Apparently, Brother Mills has had the practice of keeping notes about the content of various father’s blessing he gave to his children over the years, perhaps in his personal journal, and might on occasion refer back to these things in his dealings with individual children now grown. This reminded me of the counsel that had been given by various Church authorities to fathers to record and transcribe one blessing they give to each of their children verbatim, for the child to have. We tried to follow this particular practice with our kids. There are two who for some reason we missed, and I still say that I owe you such a blessing if or when your want it. I could also be available to assist in these kinds of blessings of grandchildren.
Tonight I am hoping that these kinds of father’s blessings are being used maximally in our families, and that our grandchildren are all privileged to have this kind of priesthood support and direction in their lives.
Saturday, August 21, was a milestone or passage day. It was the day for the first grandchild to marry. Andrew married Britain Young in the Salt Lake Temple. She is from Massachusetts and attending BYU along with Andrew. The day was full, with the ceremony, pictures, luncheon, and reception, the two latter at the Lion House, the meal in a large room on the second floor and the reception in a garden area. I thought the sealer did an excellent job of creating a spiritual atmosphere, of teaching the importance to the temple ceremony for families and giving useful direction to Andrew and Britain. The couple was appropriately cute with each other and in love, the Lion house settings seemed elegant, the weather cooperated, and all of the people were happy.
All of our family in Utah was present, the married adults in the temple plus Paul and Daniel, and all of the grandkids at the reception including Staci, Katrina (home from college), and Heidi (home from Romania). Blaine and Linda, along with their three girls and spouses, came. We saw lots of other acquaintances including Leon Soderquist, Quin’s uncle. (I worked with him for a long time at the State and he also had been the Director at DDI where Nathan and Wendy’s Michael both attended as pre-schoolers.) All in all, it was a very happy occasion.
While still on our mission, we decided that we would use the three summer weeks scheduled for us at the cabin as best we could to reconnect with our families and grandchildren. The first week in late June we had Jack and Olivia for a couple of days, also the Blakes, and Matthew and Kim’s kids (they were on a trek with the youth of their Stake).
The second week which started Jul 19th started with Valerie and Greg and family coming Monday afternoon. Angela and here three youngest also came Monday evening and left Tuesday. Matthew and Kim joined us Tuesday for a night. Wednesday we discovered a fishing pond at the Wasatch State park, and Matthew and Greg and the older Chandler boys went golfing. These families left Wednesday afternoon. The picture is of the loaded Chandler car, leaving us for another year.
Alison arrived Thursday with Rachel, Amy, and the three youngest boys and stayed Friday afternoon. Michael, Wendy’s son was also at the cabin for most of the week. Wendy and I had to bring two vehicles so that I could leave early Saturday to attend the Spanish Fork parade, and the yearly pot-luck and swimming party at Teresa Argyle’s place. We all got t-shirts saying, "Thank Heavens, I'm an Evans.
On our third cabin week we went to the cabin on Tuesday August 10th.
We had Nathan and Michael with us. Gloria came up for lunch on Thursday and took Nathan home. Later that day, Angela and Bruce and all but Staci arrived, as did Earl and Diane Mullennax. The Stanfords left Friday morning and the Mullennax’s stayed until Saturday.
We feel blessed that all of our families came at some point and we did have experiences with each one, so as to renew our relationshi
ps to some degree.
We succeeded in going through all of the paperwork, etc. to me to replace Kim as the representative payee for Nathan’s SSI, as of the start of August.
Wendy and I saw one of the best baseball games ever on Monday the 9th. We went to a Bees game with Wendy’s family, Andrew and Hilary and the two kids, and Michael and Brian. The game went into the 10 inning tied at 5-5. In the top of the 10th the New Orleans Zephyrs scored twice. In the bottom of the 10th, the Bees got two walks along with two outs and two strikes on the Bees little shortstop, Figueroa. He then drove the next pitch over the right field fence, to win the game 8-7.
On July 27th, we had the privilege of attending the Ogden temple when Paul and Daniel received their endowments. What joy to see this progress in their lives. What fine young men. They remind us so much of the best of the young missionaries we worked with in NC.
On Monday August 16th we had an interview with President Bateman and were set apart to return to the Provo Temple as ordinance workers. We will start on next Thursday, August 26th, to work again on both the first and second shifts. I found my old temple clothes, and, oh the agony of it, could not button either the pants or the coat. Since the temple desires that both items be buttoned, we went Friday to the Orem distribution center and I got new, expanded sizes of these items. We also spent a couple of hours that day at the temple viewing the training videos for temple workers. In our 87 times attending the Raleigh temple, I made a note of about10 items that they did differently that the Utah temples we were trained in or attended. (And it was with great difficulty that I held my tongue and avoided trying to make corrections there, but I succeeded.) I was particularly interested in seeing what the videos said about these items. The answer was mostly that the videos were inconclusive, as it turned out, but in a couple of instances the way Provo performs seemed to me to be confirmed.. We are really looking forward to being back in the Provo Temple this Thursday at 6:20 am, and seeing many of our friends again we hope.
Wendy spent Monday afternoon through Thursday with her Sewing Group at her friend, Janean Sonntag’s cabin, which is in the vicinity of Causey Reservoir east of Huntsville. The Sewing Group is a bunch of ladies who were mostly in the same class at Dilworth Elementary, Hillside Jr., and graduated together from Highland H.S. I spent a time working on Lewis family history, and added a number of names and source materials to our records regarding some of the descendants of Elizabeth Ann Robertson McCarty, who was a daughter of Mary Adline Lewis Robertson, and granddaughter of John Lewis and Elizabeth Sams, our ancestors. I also spent some time with Kimberly, trying to resolving some problems in New Family Search for some Agee names we had submitted for temple work. I spent Wednesday evening working with Matthew, trying to help him finish some things in his basement prior an inspection.
On Thursday, I helped discover a new fishing resources, at a Spanish Fork city reservoir call Spanish Oaks, high up in the hillside above where David and Rebecca used to live. Kimberly had asked that I help her ward’s Cub Scouts pass off some things relating to fishing. I meet her and another leader, with 4 Cubs including Joshua, and also Erin and Jeremy, a little after 10 am at the reservoir. We helped them get their poles ready and started catching fish. It didn’t seem to matter w
hat we used, worms, power bait, spinners–all were successful. The fishing was great! All told we caught at least a dozen fish in about two hours, gave some away, threw some back, and kept some. I took home 2 nice ones including one that about 13-14 inches long and quite fat, that I hooked and let one of the Cubs reel in. It was a nice cool, overcast day and we might have stayed longer except that at about 1 pm we observed what was like a black curtain of clouds approaching from the northwest. We cleaned our fish, jumped in our cars and I just got in the house when a torrent of lightning, thunder, wind, and rain began.
Wendy and I have now taught our 15-16 year old Sunday School class four times. They are really nice kids and mostly cooperate and help us as we try to teach lessons from the Old Testament.
At the invitation of President Blair, Stake 2nd Counselor, I helped plan and conduct a training meeting on Tuesday, August 17th, to initiate the Friends of Scouting drive in our stake.
We call periodically to stay in touch with Mt. Zion branch people. It appears now that the temple sealing for Todd and Tabatha and also her parents Jeff and Debbie, will be Saturday, October 23rd. We are still intending to go back to NC for this, and also to work in a visit to David and Rebecca and boys on the same trip.
Wendy and I drove up Diamond Fork this afternoon to see if there were fall colors. One of the brightest yellows was the bloom on the sage. And I got a shot of a butterfly on the bloom. 
arch. We love it.
For a reason not usually considered, the Book of Mormon is unique among the standard works for the Church and, for that matter, any book that thus far has ever been written. This reason provides, perhaps, a major explanation for why prophets such as Ezra Taft Benson have emphasized the special need for its study by Church members and how and why its message was written specifically for our day. This reason is that the Book of Mormon is the record of a people who possessed the fulness of the Gospel (D&C 20:9; 27:5; 42:12) for over 1000 years. As such, it provides a very important model for members of the Church to follow, since we also exist in this same kind of religious setting.
I came home from NC carrying lots of extra weight and severely out of condition. We were so busy, it was hard to schedule exercise (besides, where we lived was not a very good or safe place to walk). We were on the road a lot and eating a lot of fast food. When I stepped on the scales the morning after arriving home, I weighed 242 pounds. 
We have had Wendy’s mother, Annette Ridges, with us this weekend. We are giving Wendy’s sister Shannon a break. Annette is 92 years old. While she can still walk some and appears to have pretty good physical health, she is nearly blind, has very poor hearing, and considerable dementia. Once in a while her memory kicks in, but in general, there isn’t much communication anymore. When she senses she has an audience, she will sort of wake up and try to entertain people with funny statements and faces.
We were very grateful for an invitation from Soderquists to join them for Heidi’s mission call opening last Wednesday evening. The anticipated mail arrived in South Weber early in the afternoon. Alison let us know that the Official Opening (and to the best of our knowledge, there was no unofficial prior opening) would take place at 6:30 pm on the BYU campus, on a little grassy hill (mound?) that Heidi has a particular affection for, just outside the east entrance to the Talmage Building.
cellona.” There was a considerable level of whooping, hollering, and hugging. Meanwhile, Jonathan, Aaron and Chris made good use of the hill for rolling and wrestling, and Daniel found a lightpost to do pushups from. 
We
had Hilary, Andrew, Olivia and Jack down for dinner Sunday evening. We helped Olivia celebrate her 8th birthday.
Here are the first peaches that came from one of our two little peach trees. This is half of the crop of six, on the early Elberta tree. For several weeks we have been out to these trees at least daily to see if any peaches are ripe enough to fall off in our hand when we give them a gentle tug. Finally the payoff! 
m the early tree. So sweet, so full of flavor. Yum!
All of our Utah County families met at the Spanish Oaks reservoir in the late morning. Some of us fished. Matthew finally had some success fishing by the outlet with powerbait. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and had lunch together.
Utah Valley to the north, especially in the evening.
Uncle Rodney (Davenport) passed away last Sunday. Our experiences while attending the viewing Thursday night and at the viewing and funeral Friday were meaningful and special. One of the first things that caught our attention as we entered Wing Mortuary Thursday evening was his clarinet and saxophone sitting in their open cases. I remembered these instruments well. He left them with us in 1942 when he went to war. Having a fascination with all things musical, I had the overwhelming desire to get them out and learn to play them. I couldn’t understand why my mother wouldn’t allow this. They sat for four years in their cases in a storage area under our living room couch, without my touching them, from my fifth to ninth year, until Rodney was released from active duty and retrieved them in 1946. I never did realize my dream of being a saxophone player. Rodney was an outstanding self-taught musician, and played these instruments in the 1930-1940s “big-band” tradition of Benny Goodman or Glen Miller. According to things said at his funeral, he started a band called “The Columbians” when just out of high school which played for dances and gave performances for a number of years throughout the mid-Columbia area of Oregon and Washington. One young musician that he tutored was Doc Severinson, who later was Johnny Carson’s musical director. The family said that Severinson later invited him to join him in his band in Los Angeles, but Uncle Rodney turned him down, feeling that the life-style of this kind of professional musician was unsuitable for a family man.
We try to do an endowment session weekly. Last Tuesday we went to a session at 6 pm in the Provo temple. We had not been sitting long in the Chapel waiting for the session to start, when Uncle Blaine came in, looking sharp in his white ordinance workers’ suit. We learned that currently he is serving as an Endowment Room Coordinator for his shift. He came over to us and said, “I have an important assignment for you today” and asked us to serve as witness couple, which we love to do, of course. (We love it when we know high people in high places.)
A few weeks ago, I sent a letter to each of the missionaries from our Wolf Hollow 2nd ward. (They are all young men I worked with when I was ward YM President in 2007-2008.) I had a sweet letter back from Elder Ryan Jackson, who is serving in the Washington Seattle Mission. He said in part:
With the new hearing devices, I am starting to be able to hear sacrament meeting talks again. Today’s were just exceptional. Kristen Johnson, a fairly young mother in our ward, gave a very intense talk on the high priority that mothers should give to being at home and teaching and nurturing their children. I had the thought that this was Valerie transfigured, standing before us emoting and presenting the message of the prophets. It literally brought tears in my eyes.
Saturday, August 21, was a milestone or passage day. It was the day for the first grandchild to marry. Andrew married Britain Young in the Salt Lake Temple. She is from Massachusetts and attending BYU along with Andrew. The day was full, with the ceremony, pictures, luncheon, and reception, the two latter at the Lion House, the meal in a large room on the second floor and the reception in a garden area. I thought the sealer did an excellent job of creating a spiritual atmosphere, of teaching the importance to the temple ceremony for families and giving useful direction to Andrew and Britain. The couple was appropriately cute with each other and in love, the Lion house settings seemed elegant, the weather cooperated, and all of the people were happy. 
While still on our mission, we decided that we would use the three summer weeks scheduled for us at the cabin as best we could to reconnect with our families and grandchildren. The first week in late June we had Jack and Olivia for a couple of days, also the Blakes, and Matthew and Kim’s kids (they were on a trek with the youth of their Stake).
ps to some degree. 
hat we used, worms, power bait, spinners–all were successful. The fishing was great! All told we caught at least a dozen fish in about two hours, gave some away, threw some back, and kept some. I took home 2 nice ones including one that about 13-14 inches long and quite fat, that I hooked and let one of the Cubs reel in. It was a nice cool, overcast day and we might have stayed longer except that at about 1 pm we observed what was like a black curtain of clouds approaching from the northwest. We cleaned our fish, jumped in our cars and I just got in the house when a torrent of lightning, thunder, wind, and rain began.
Yesterday we spent from 9 am to about 3 pm at Huntsman Cancer in their dermatology clinic, where Wendy had a basal cell carcinoma removed. The process was interesting. They did the initial incision and we went back to the waiting room for 45 minutes until the results had been processed. Then they had us back in to removed a couple of small added spots. Then back to the waiting room again until they had examined the next removal in the lab. Then we went back to the operating room again to get one more little spot off. Then waiting again until finally the lab said the cancerous tissue was all gone. Then back to the operating room for plastic surgery to close the wound. The bandage is huge where the incision was about the size of a large peanut, but maybe more round, like a filbert. Today we are seeing some swelling and blackening by the side of Wendy's left eye.
